Portable hunting blinds and treestands are generally known, including some that can be collapsed or folded and carried like backpacks. However, known blinds and treestands are usually designed for one specific hunting situation, and therefore lack flexibility and adaptability to the many different types of hunting available throughout the year. Ground hunting, elevated treestand hunting, and hunting in flooded timber are three common types of hunting where some sort of stand or blind is often used, and hunters often use several different types of blind or treestand to accommodate all of them.
The problem is complicated by the large quantity of gear a hunter typically carries into the woods, including things such as firearm and ammunition, bow and arrows, optical equipment, food, water, extra clothing, licenses, field dressing equipment, flashlight, and more. Some blinds and treestands are designed to be carried like backpacks, such as the canopy-enclosed blinds disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,990,536 to Wilburn and U.S. Pat. No. 6,021,794 to Guerra, whose frames double as backpacks for carrying the collapsed blinds. The resulting backpacks, however, seem designed primarily as self-carrying devices for the blind components, and do not appear able to carry much gear. U.S. Pat. No. 4,148,376 to Campbell, Jr., U.S. Pat. No. 4,582,165 to Latini, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,975,389 to Braun et al. disclose treestands whose frames function as backpack frames on the way in and out of the woods for carrying gear and game, but none provides an enclosed blind or shelter. U.S. Pat. No. 4,493,395 to Rittenhouse discloses a treestand with a canvas shelter, but it does not appear to be adapted for use as a backpack. None of the foregoing is believed to carry both itself and gear well, while additionally providing shelter and a truly all-around hunting blind.
Some prior blinds are designed to work in complementary fashion with treestands where, for example, it might be desirable to use a blind for its weather protection along with a treestand for its elevated hunting position. Examples are U.S. Pat. No. 6,431,192 to O'Hare and U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2002/0078988 to Valpredo. O'Hare discloses a blind with two arched, fabric-paneled sidewalls that can either be mounted to the ground with stakes, or retrofitted to an existing treestand with a relatively bulky, T-shaped, non-loadbearing support base by lashing it onto the treestand with cable ties. The fabric-paneled sidewalls are mounted on the base in a “V” shape; the spacing of the sidewalls can be adjusted by telescoping extension arms on the base of the T, and the angle of the sidewalls can be adjusted through pivoting sockets or elbows on the ends of the base. Valpredo discloses a portable hunting blind with a frame whose base can either be placed in freestanding fashion on the ground, or mounted on a large treestand platform with brackets and bolts.
The O'Hare and Valpredo blinds, however, are not believed to be as easily transported as the backpack type blinds, and either do not offer much weather protection (O'Hare) or do not appear to be useful with small, backpack-portable treestands (Valpredo).
Finally, none of the prior blinds or treestands is believed to be particularly well-suited for flooded timber hunting, where the hunter typically wants to be positioned near ground level but is hampered by as much as several feet of water.